1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a barcode printing control device which controls the printing of a barcode on a printing sheet using an ink.
2. Background Art
Generally, a barcode representing an identification code such as numerical values and characters by a stripe pattern formed of a combination of black bars and white bars is printed. The printed barcode is scanned by a barcode reader in a direction of the alternately arranged black bars and white bars, thereby reading the identification code represented by the barcode. In this case, the barcode may be read by scanning once or more on the basis of the printing quality of the barcode, resolution of the barcode reader, and a scanning direction of the barcode reader by a user, but there are cases where the barcode may not be read within a predetermined number of times.
There are many cases where the barcode is printed with another image (hereinafter, referred to as a document image) other than the barcode, such as characters. Dense printing of the document image causes the printing quality to be improved. Printing density of the barcode and printing density of the document image are collectively high such that there is no incompatibility of visibility between the printing density of the barcode and the printing density of the document image.
However, line widths of the black bars and the white bars of the barcode are strictly regulated. Accordingly, when thickening of characters of dots based on the bleed of the ink into the printing sheet occurs on the densely printed barcode, a reading rate of the barcode reader is decreased.
For this reason, as a technique in which a printing density is set high to improve the reading rate of the barcode when the thickening of the characters of the dots based on the bleed of the ink occurs, there is a technique disclosed in JP-A-2003-136785.
According to the technique disclosed in JP-A-2003-136785, a technique in which a logical multiply operation of data corresponding to the barcode and data obtained by shifting the data either left or right by one dot is performed to perform printing in the left and right directions by one dot is disclosed. As a result, even when the printing density is set high and the thickening of the characters of the dots based on the bleed of the ink occurs, it is possible to prevent the reading rate of the barcode from decreasing.
However, in the related prior art described above, there is the following problem. In the related prior art described above, one dot is uniformly reduced at the part of the black bars and the printing is performed, thereby suppressing the thickening of the black bars. However, according to properties of the ink and printing sheets, even when one dot is reduced and the printing is performed, the bleed of the ink of the dots is large. Accordingly, the thickening of the black bars is not sufficiently suppressed and thus there are cases where it is difficult to read the barcode.
Meanwhile, according to properties of the ink and printing sheets, there are cases where the bleed of the ink is small. In such a case, when the printing density is uniformly decreased as described in the related art, the widths of the black bars necessary for the barcode reading are not achieved, and there are cases where it is difficult to read the barcode.